2020 Lawn thread

[MrOrange]

I see mention of worms/worm casts above. I’ve been working on my lawn for a couple of seasons (spiking, treatment etc, nothing too serious) and this is the first winter where there is no moss. But, the lawn is covered in worm casts - I assume this is a good thing?

[dhutch]

renmure said:

I'm out in the countryside with 5 acres of grass, ....

Hard life! Fair enough.

[cheddar]

renmure said:

I'm out in the countryside with 5 acres of grass, surrounded by trees and haven't collected clippings in 20 years. Over that period I've mainly used a big ride-on mower with a proper mulching deck but also a triple cylinder ransoms mower that cut the grass so short that you never saw the clippings. I've ridden over the leaves every year to mulch them. I guess there will be some build-up of thatch over 20 years but I genuinely can't see any evidence

Could you post your visiting hours, cost of entry and whether your tea rooms are well heated as mother gets chilly in stately homes.

[renmure]

Kettle is always on. Rooms a bit chilly in winter. Grass still needs cut. Mulching still makes that easier. Large or small, other sized gardens are available, same principle.

[dhutch]

We're 18 months into turning around a neglected lawn, so far this has gone ok even with slightly mixed attention, I am far from an expert.

Last spring my over-seeding didn't take (might have been a bit late, maybe some bad luck with a spell of dry weather, didn't water as quite a large area) and this autumn I missed the window for reseeding which is a shame as last autumn worked really well. I was also planning a deep scarification and aeration with a hired machine as I have not done either yet, but missed this too. I have also not winter-fed it although it got some
Lawnsmith 'Natur' in July, not sure if I should do that now with a winter mix or wait till spring?

Looking forward to spring I don't know if I should hire a machine and do a deep/knife scrafiy of the lawn or use our Bosch AVR 1100 'electric lawn rake' to go over it again. Hard to know, but while I dont think it is awful I think there is a thatch layer the electric rake doesnt get down to that we would be better without but also a lot of guides say to avoid this at the start of the season and wait for september?
I can then have another go with the spiked roller and over-seeding, a little earlier this year I think so hopefully it isn't too dry, it seems mid-late April is about right, air temp above 13deg?

Lawn is about 400m^2, on sandstone, reasonable light and conditions bar one corner which is under trees including broad leafs and a mature pine.

All comments welcome.

Cheers
Daniel.

[RichB]

dhutch said:

We're 18 months into turning around a neglected lawn, <clip> Cheers
Daniel.

When you say sandstone, do you mean sandy soil? Is soil generally acidic, where so you live?
The electric rake will get up thatch, the machine with knives is more for aeration - confusingly the hire places call them scarifyers!
If you're on sandy soil you will need to feed more frequently because the nutrients will leach away more than on clay or loam.
If you last fed in summer '19 then I would suggest you could use ferrous sulphate now to toughen the grass then think about feeding in early March.
Sign up to get the newsletter from Lawnsmith even if you don't buy their products, although there's no reason not to, you will get good monthly advice on lawn care e.g. there's loads on scarifying and aeration.

[dhutch]

RichB said:

When you say sandstone, do you mean sandy soil? Is soil generally acidic, where so you live?
The electric rake will get up thatch, the machine with knives is more for aeration - confusingly the hire places call them scarifyers!
If you're on sandy soil you will need to feed more frequently because the nutrients will leach away more than on clay or loam.
If you last fed in summer '19 then I would suggest you could use ferrous sulphate now to toughen the grass then think about feeding in early March.
Sign up to get the newsletter from Lawnsmith even if you don't buy their products, although there's no reason not to, you will get good monthly advice on lawn care e.g. there's loads on scarifying and aeration.

Sounds like good advice. Not used Ferrous Sulphate so a dose of that sounds good.
The sandstone bedrock is only a foot or two below the surface from what I have seen, and the soil appears correspondingly sandly is also reasonable loam, which fits with the ukso map of soil types for our area of the Wirral. I don't know the PH of the area.
I have been using Lawnsmiths for our products, the guy seems a top bloke.

Daniel

[Dutch02]

I intend to finally sort out my neglected back garden this year, unfortunately despite being in a bad state when we moved in a year ago... its now even worse, completely overrun by weeds.

I've attached 2 old pictures and 1 recent one (not the best but all i have right now) to illustrate how bad it is.

The problems i need to fix are:

1) How to get rid of the weeds - im thinking that as the garden has been completely overrun its best to start again? Thus, i was going to cover it all in black sheeting for 3/4 months to kill off everything and then dig out any stubborn weeds that are left by hand...

2) my soil appears to be made mostly out of small stones and is very dry. Once i've got a clean slate, will simply mixing in new top soil help give me a healthier base to work from?

I've never done any gardening before, so its possible im making a right hash of it!!

Any suggestions?
[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/x8BwBtFz[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/c2ckZHxA[/url]

[GTO-3R]

I didn't scarify at all last year so my lawn is currently a moss filled disaster area Looking forward to giving it a good going over soon!

[paulrockliffe]

Looks like ti's got a fair bit of rubbish in it too. I'd be tempted to glyphosate it rather than black plastic as the plastic will be more work and won't do much more over that period than a few sprays - dormant seeds will remain a problem either way. I did similar and then spent a couple of years removing weeds or spot-spraying them as I mowed the lawn a few times a year and they're under control now.

I hired a rotovator and ripped everything up and loosend it enough to level it, used ladders with bricks on to level everything (back-breaking!) and then seeded it. Yours looks like it wants similar, with all the big bits of rubble etc picked up too.

I would spray it now, then spray it again a week or so before you want to do the work. Then pick up all the rubbish and rotovate it. Pick up the rubbish again, then add extra topsoil and if can get some organic in too that would be great. Rotovate again to mix it all in and then get it level and seeded up.

[Dutch02]

Yep, lots of rubbish that needs to be sorted out. All of the rubble will be going in the tip, unless it can be used for leveling out the slope towards the rear? (i cant imagine thats the right way to do it though).

I was wary about using a rotovator and spreading more weeds around the garden?

The reason i suggested the black bags, is that i didn't think glyphosate was very effective during the winter months?

Edited by Dutch02 on Friday 3rd January 12:30

[Nick_MSM]

dhutch said:

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/buying-guides/lawn-fer...

Go to the shop, filter by type down the left. If in doubt, really friendly over the phone. Mention 'pistonhead' as every little helps.


Daniel

Thanks, yes looked on their site, reckon the Winter Green will do the trick.

[mikees]

Worth a quick cut today? 7 degrees and sunny. Looks dry.

[PositronicRay]

mikees said:

Worth a quick cut today? 7 degrees and sunny. Looks dry.

No reason why not.

[ooid]

My lawn is in pretty sad condition. I've put it (Rolawn Turf) late august (see my build thread) and it was quite crisp until November. It started to get muddy slowly after that. I've put some seeds again a few weeks ago any other suggestions? Should I wait until spring for the repair actions or I can do anything immediate? Of course my naughty dog looks suspicious...

[stewjohnst]

I’m unlikely to win any prizes this year

Wife wants it grown long (sacrilege!) and bulbed with crocus, etc. so bugger all for me to do to it, not exactly main feature of garden anyway.

Bottom end is shaded by Magnolia tree.

[PositronicRay]

ooid said:

My lawn is in pretty sad condition. I've put it (Rolawn Turf) late august (see my build thread) and it was quite crisp until November. It started to get muddy slowly after that. I've put some seeds again a few weeks ago any other suggestions? Should I wait until spring for the repair actions or I can do anything immediate? Of course my naughty dog looks suspicious...

You know what, I wouldn't even try to grow the lawn, small areas are hard work and not rewarding. I'd go for a shrubbery and gravel instead.

[PositronicRay]

stewjohnst said:

I’m unlikely to win any prizes this year

Wife wants it grown long (sacrilege!) and bulbed with crocus, etc. so bugger all for me to do to it, not exactly main feature of garden anyway.

Bottom end is shaded by Magnolia tree.

Wild life area, cut a path through it and keep brambles down.

[stewjohnst]

PositronicRay said:

Wild life area, cut a path through it and keep brambles down.

It’s what she wants it for, pollinators for rest of garden, would mean my mower is more or less surplus to requirements if I didn’t use it for hoovering you and mulching leaf fall on the courtyard...

[Abbott]

renmure said:

I'm out in the countryside with 5 acres of grass, surrounded by trees and haven't collected clippings in 20 years. Over that period I've mainly used a big ride-on mower with a proper mulching deck but also a triple cylinder ransoms mower that cut the grass so short that you never saw the clippings. I've ridden over the leaves every year to mulch them. I guess there will be some build-up of thatch over 20 years but I genuinely can't see any evidence

How many ground staff do you have?